by Laurence Hammack | Sep 7, 2014 | Addiction/drug abuse
BLAND — Nearly everything that Kevin Keller did in his final years bore the mark of constant pain, even the note he left in the end. His right arm rendered useless by a crippling stroke, Keller used an unsteady left hand to scrawl a brief letter to his best...
by Laurence Hammack | May 12, 2007 | Addiction/drug abuse
The headline on the company news release was boastful, almost cocky: “65-0: OxyContin cases against Purdue Pharma dismissed at a record rate.” It was the winter of 2003, and Purdue was celebrating its 65th straight victory in the fight against lawsuits...
by Laurence Hammack | Mar 28, 2004 | Addiction/drug abuse
The occupants of apartment No. 99 were well-known to neighbors, if not by name, then by loud music and late-night parties. One such gathering at Camelot Village Apartments in Salem lasted well into the morning of May 13. The calm that finally settled over the building...
by Laurence Hammack | Jan 18, 2004 | Addiction/drug abuse
Proposed legislation that would restrict methadone clinics from opening near schools and day care centers is so sweeping that it would bar the drug treatment centers from most of Roanoke. In filing bills that would prohibit new methadone clinics within a half-mile of...
by Laurence Hammack | Aug 11, 2002 | Addiction/drug abuse
GALAX — Ralph Cockrill has just taken his daily dose of a drug that killed 44 people in Western Virginia last year. And he’s never felt better. Cockrill is on methadone – a double-edged narcotic that can be a curse for the drug abuser he used to be...
by Laurence Hammack | Jul 24, 2001 | Addiction/drug abuse
TAZEWELL — Ground up in a spoon, mixed with water and drawn into a needle, one OxyContin pill is as dangerous as a loaded gun. So when Nicholas Dickerson died from an overdose of the prescription painkiller, Tazewell County authorities figured that the man who...